Pro politics match pro renovation

Updated 10:25 pm, Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ed Garza moved into his seat as school board president Tuesday and promptly announced San Antonio Independent School District was ending talks to bring professional soccer to Alamo Stadium.

It was a grand gesture to remove Spurs Sports & Entertainment's proposal to lease the stadium for a prospective expansion soccer team. But it left room to be an empty gesture because the plans to install a FIFA-sized field at the stadium, one suitable for a pro team, didn't change.

Facing a barrage of opposition from voters and city officials, Tuesday's move actually may have been the best way to keep the possibility of professional soccer in Alamo Stadium alive.

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With the city looking to enforce deed restrictions, neighboring residents considering lawsuits and public trust waning, ending talks about professional soccer for now gives SAISD more time.

Right now, it's a debate over whether a team that doesn't exist can play in a stadium that hasn't begun its renovation.

By December 2014, when renovation is scheduled to be completed, the anger may die down. The climate could be more open to professional soccer.

But Garza insists that a FIFA-sized field in Alamo Stadium is purely about building the best facility for every high school athlete. If this is all in the effort to give high school soccer players a bigger field, it's an absurd amount of effort.

An estimated $3 million would be needed to remove part of the 71-year-old grandstands to fit the field and a surrounding track, although Garza contends the figure will be much lower. It's still a massive expense when a high school-regulation field would fit at no extra cost.

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Then there are the two soccer fields SAISD has that fit FIFA standards, added a couple of weeks ago by SAISD athletic director Gil Garza when he redrew the lines at SAISD's Sports Complex.

No construction crew needed. Just paint.

The lengths Garza and SAISD's school board have taken with the stadium have created a skeptical public. Board members can't afford to lose the public trust at re-election time.

So Tuesday's resolution included that the bond money for the stadium “shall be for the primary purpose of supporting SAISD athletics” — since that fact needed to be clarified.

It's a similar announcement to one made in August 2010, when SAISD ended talks with SS&E as public concerns grew before the November bond vote. When the talks resurfaced last month, SAISD residents who voted for the bond told board members at a hearing that they'd been fooled.

Alamo Stadium talks will die down again. Meanwhile, SS&E will continue to wait for the right venue.

SS&E's interest in a pro soccer team has been an exercise in patience. The company has considered soccer for seven years, and Leo Gomez, a vice president for SS&E, said the company has no set timetable for a team.

Gomez said SS&E has looked at other venues, but declined to say which ones. If Alamo Stadium reopens with a FIFA-sized field, it would be nearly impossible to find a more ideal place.

By then, SAISD will still be a cash-strapped district looking for more revenue, with a stadium that would lose money unless it was leased out.

What sounds like a misuse of public funds to some now could be Garza's “outside the box” revenue generator later.

Garza's always tried to think long-term when it comes to Alamo Stadium.

He may have been looking down the road again during Tuesday's announcement — to get to the new, improved Alamo Stadium, Garza has to get through a re-election bid in 2013 first.